Moon nights - a summer romance in Seoul

Chapter 38: Ayla

Oh can I just rip my heart out of my chest
Give it a good squeeze
So the excess emotions can drip out
While I watch my heart bleed?

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"Rise and Shineeeee" Mina's singing greeted me this morning. Muttering something under my breath, I buried my head into my pillow.

"Come on, I'm starving, and it will take us at least an hour to get to Florya. It's one of your fav places here, right?"

"Yeah, Tala and I go there quite often to walk along the river; it's not overcrowded like other parts of Istanbul", I yawned and rubbed my temples. A headache was creeping up; I better take a painkiller before we left; we had a long day ahead of us.

Rolling out of bed and picking an outfit later, Mina and I were getting ready in the main bathroom, more significant than my room back home in Izmir. Notting Hill moment, perhaps?
The small vlogging camera was on the sink counter and filmed us applying makeup until we were done. The urge to talk to the camera like a vogue video was tempting, but we weren't allowed to show brands, so we quietly got ready and talked with each other instead.

Mina, Naeun, and Jonghyun were the fashionistas of our group, so the editors sometimes blurred out the branding on their clothes. We had watched some parts of the episodes during the flight as well, but mostly we saw ourselves when people uploaded details of the show on social media and tagged us in it. The new account I had made for the show had gained 13k followers since the beginning of the show. My original account was private, but people still sent requests to follow, which I deleted. I didn't want to show the world what my personal life before the show looked like; they would probably be snooping around and judging me again for every small thing. I wouldn't hand them that on a silver plate.

My outfit consisted of a beige cotton dress that I cinched at the waist with a brown belt, a matching brown bag, and slippers for all the walking today. Rounded up with golden jewellery, I felt ready to explore.

As expected with traffic, we arrived in Florya an hour later with the two caps the production team had hired for us. The additional car with the two camera operators and Assistant Lee had lost track of us at one point, so we waited for them to arrive until we walked further away from the street. Ten minutes later, they showed up.

"Alright, we still made it in time for reservations. Inside, we will also meet an old friend of mine who will guide us for the next two weeks, Ms Yilmaz, who also works in the entertainment industry".

So inside the restaurant which granted you a view over the Bosporus river, we went.

The two friends greeted each other heartily, and we introduced ourselves to Filiz Yilmaz. She had worked on set for multiple series, she told us, but since summer was the break for most series, she had a free schedule to help out her friend.

"I've watched every single episode of the show; it felt like I was learning history without studying it. And you two", she pointed at Jonghyun and me, "are one of the most adorable couples I've seen. I do hope that you stick together" I gave her a nervous smile in response.

I hope so too, but it's not only up to me.

A full Turkish cuisine breakfast was spread along the table that all 12 of us were sitting in, from suçuk to melee, four different kinds of cheese, and multiple dips to choose from, topped with black tea, of course.

"It does taste a bit different than the one breakfast you made of us with Tala", Jonghyun commented with his mouth complete.
"Perhaps because these ingredients are super fresh and don't cost a month's rent", I replied and smeared some of the helva on my slice of bread.